


Expeditious

by Marklie



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Broken Families, I wanted that friendship angle, More tags later, Secrets, Starts light-hearted, Street Racing, Underage Drinking, Violence, no relationships sorry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-03
Updated: 2019-10-03
Packaged: 2020-11-22 14:34:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20875796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marklie/pseuds/Marklie
Summary: Mark thinks he likes the burn of the cold wind on his face, the smell of burnt rubber in his nose and the adrenaline in his veins.It's addictive.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Street Credit](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15584040) by [TRASHCAKE](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TRASHCAKE/pseuds/TRASHCAKE). 

> I've had this idea in my head since I read 'Street Credit', which is so so so good, and has much better writing and more knowledge than me; but I just had to post this, 'cause the idea of it really excites me, hahah.  
My knowledge of things is really quite Australian, so if at any point you're ever confused, please ask/tell me!
> 
> * Taeyong and Mark are the same age!  
** I re-wrote chapter 1. Chapter 2 out soon :)

Mark had woken at 6:30 this hot, sweltering, summer's morning, and forgone his usual morning run for a good extra half an hour 'sleep' in his un-air-conditioned bedroom. And by sleep, he means trying to sleep but failing because his skin kept sticking to the sheets beneath him. The window was wide open to let in the fresh air, the sheer curtains flapping every 10 seconds as the fan at the foot of the bed spun around in its never-ending cycle. Mark now lay, head and shoulders off the bed, hands touching the floor, groaning to himself about every moment in life that had lead him to here- to his Aunt's animal farm in the red dirt country, so far away from the city and its suburbs. His Mum and Dad had booked a last-minute cruise to 'rekindle their passion', his Mum's words, not his, taking off into a world filled with all you can eat bars and unlimited cocktails, while Mark was shipped-off to the countryside. His phone vibrates beneath his leg, where it lay tangled in the bed-sheets. He chooses to ignore it, but two minutes later, the phone vibrates again, so he summons all the strength in his body to sit-up. The blood rushes down from where it had collected in his head to spread-throughout his body once more. Spots dance in front of his eyes, and he blinks a few times, feeling tingly in his fingers. Probably shouldn't lie like that again any time soon.

Without his glasses on the phone screen is a little blurry, but he's not really up for getting them- frowning mournfully as they look at him from the desk across the bedroom. So, he makes do with a high-powered squint. It's a photo from Taeyong, a peace selfie, attached with a message that lets Mark know that he, his brother and his brother's college friends had safely arrived in Phuket. Mark feels a little bit jealous at the smile on his best friend's face; travelling in a foreign country while Mark was stuck in this pre-war nightmare of a house with cows right outside and a rooster squawk every morning. But it was Taeyong, the closest person in his life, basically a member of his family, so he wasn't going to be petty about it. As he's texting a reply back he hears the scrape of claws on the floors and looks up as his Aunt's golden retriever, Lionel, pads into the room- his tongue hanging out and his tail wagging softly.

"Hey, buddy", Mark feels a grin growing on his face, putting the phone down beside him. Lionel's fur is dirty again, coated in the red dirt that forms the driveway between the house-stead and the main road, but Mark doesn't really care at this stage, even laughing a little when Lionel snorts after the dusted remains of the dirt enter his nose.

"Mum wants you to get the chicken eggs". The sudden sound causes Mark to jump a little, Lionel grunting at the action. His cousin's voice is firm, and there's a slight downward tilt to his lips as he watches Mark's hands get further coated in the dirt the more he runs them through Lionel's fur. "You can come back for breakfast straight after".

"Okay", Mark says simply, and before the syllable has even left his mouth, his cousin has turned on his heel, left the room and started stalking down the hallway. Mark looks down at Lionel, who was already watching him with a silly dog smile, his tail thumping on the old, wrecked carpet. Mark sighs, patting the dog on the head and crossing the room to grab his circle-rim glasses. He had no idea why his cousin seemed to have such a problem with him. It could be because they didn't spend any time at all together growing up, and then Mark was suddenly in his house one day for a whole summer. Mark feels his face contort into a grimace- it would be kind of awful having someone you hardly knew coming to live with you. He didn't really know what to do with the relationship, though. Taeyong was the more out-going one of the two of them, and the other friends he had made along the way like Lucas, were because the other had attached themselves to Mark, not really caring about what he thought. He was severely lacking in knowledge about how to make friends. What a depressing thought.

The 17-year-old put the glasses on and made his way toward his doorframe, turning back at the last second.

"Come on, Lionel. Let's hope the chicken don't peck the shit out of us today".

**

Thankfully, Mark's Aunt gave him a break from farm-work after lunch, when the sun was at its highest and you could see the heatwaves rolling along the ground. She knew that her extremely pale, city-boy nephew would probably die of dehydration otherwise. He crashed into one of the couches in the living room, sticking his nose into one of his required reading books for the next year of school. His final year with graduation at the end. Mark's motivation, straight A's and Student Leader position had him in the bag for a scholarship offer and even the Dux Award. The position he was laying in pushed his glasses into his cheekbones so uncomfortably that Mark was sure there would be a red mark left behind, but he was too engrossed with what he was reading and so weighed down by the heat, to even think about moving. It's the alert of his phone, a constant ding-ding-ding, that lets him know that a FaceTime call is coming, and it forces him to lift himself upwards from where he had been stuck to the couch material. It's Taeyong.

"Bro", he says in greeting, fixing his glasses with the hand not holding the phone.

"Bro", Taeyong responds, but his voice is crackly and the picture is blurry. Mark's Aunt's Wi-Fi was so shitty it was painful. Taeyong's continued speaking but all Mark caught were the words "go-kart" and "buggies".

"What?" He asks his friends, eyebrows creased and confusion etched on his face.

"We're going to race!" Taeyong has a bright grin on his face, and Mark connects the dots instantly. A go-kart and buggy race-way. The signal drops off on the call for a second and Mark can feel frustration starting to creep up. Then Taeyong's face appears again. "That's awesome", Mark manages to get out, before the call gets cut off again and he ends it with a sigh, not feeling like going through this for another day, texting Taeyong that he should have a good time and sorry for the crap reception. Once again.

It's a little strange for Mark to be away from his best friend like this. They'd been attached so closely since they were six that having Taeyong around was normal and expected. The race-way wasn't surprising though. Taeyong's uncle, before he died when Mark and Taeyong were 11, was a Formula 2 driver and really close to his nephew. Taeyong's uncle had had him on the back of motorcycles and picking out spanners and bolts whenever was needed since the boy could walk. Because of that, Taeyong developed a love of cars, and an even closer attachment to his uncle, whose passing affected Taeyong immensely. Mark never really got behind the whole car thing, but he did go for his license as soon as he could- pressured by Taeyong's constant jabbering in his ear. Taeyong drove a matt-black 1995 Subaru Impreza that his uncle had left behind for him, and Mark, well Mark drove a Kia Rio that his parents had bought brand new at the dealership. It was an automatic too. The frown on Taeyong's face was so intense when he found out that Mark thought for sure they were going to have their first real argument.

Mark's about to get stuck back into his book, when his Aunt appears through the sliding door, covered in mud and cursing like there's no tomorrow. Mark gets up immediately and runs to the linen closet, getting her a ratty towel from the bottom shelf and racing it to his Aunt.

"What happened?" She takes the towel from him and scrubs at her face with a frustrated scream.

"The cows got out".

_Oh shit._

Mark slips his sneakers on and bolts out the back sliding door, seeing his cousin and the farm-hands in the distance trying their best to herd cows, screaming and excited 'moos' echoing around the fields.

*

Mark's summer continues like that. Disgustingly hot days, a stand-offish relationship with his cousin, and such poor communication with Taeyong that their messages eventually grow few and far in-between. Mark doesn't take much notice though, his previous thoughts of abnormality without his best friend being present, obscured by the constant physical labour and tasks of going to the General Store for supplies.

It's not until he gets a text from Lucas toward the end of the summer, two weeks before Mark is set to return home, and a little after Taeyong had gotten back into the country, that Mark gets a little concerned with how little he's heard from his best friend. The text reads, _'Tae was supposed to meet up with us, and he didn't turn up. Saw him at a college friend's party the other day though… He hasn't even really been responding to texts. Do you know what's happening?'_ In the photo, Taeyong is surrounded by people that Mark has never seen before, a bottle of beer in his hand and his hair, a bright shock of blue. Mark instantly feels confused by the photo in front of him, his hands starting to sweat a little. Even when Taeyong's uncle had died, he had just kept to home for a month and a bit, inviting Mark over for movie nights, not having enough energy to see anybody else; but nothing like this. Mark had known the boy for over 10 years and despite his energetic and party-loving personality, he'd never touched hair-dye, let alone alcohol. And beer, out of all the alcohol he could choose. Something had happened. Mark didn't know what exactly, but the signs were all there.

He simply texts back to Lucas that he doesn't know, and then opens his chat with Taeyong, the last message between the two of them sent a little under a week ago by Mark, which had been left on read. He feels himself frown, his fingers hovering over the text bar. What's he supposed to say? It feels a little bit like confrontation and Mark doesn't know how to handle that, so instead, he sends him a _'what are you up to today? :)'_ and hopes that Taeyong will reply with an answer that hits everything Mark wants to know, without coming anywhere near starting a fight. Mark sees the little typing dots come up, and it seems like Taeyong is typing and typing and typing and then they just disappear, the words READ burning themselves into Mark's retina as the night goes on and there's no reply.

Mark doesn't feel angry, just confused and a little worried. Lucas seemed concerned with Mark's response and had been updating Mark every second day with re-confirmation that people hadn't really been in contact with the new blue-headed boy, but that someone thought they had seen his car on the coast late the other night- which was strange. Because Taeyong's house was nowhere near the coast, and as far as Mark knew, he didn't know anyone that lived there.

It's the night before Mark is set to go home and he's just finished hefting the last of his stuff into his ADIDAS duffle bag, the fan on and the window open again. The night sky is startlingly black and highlighted with little specks of white, stars in the sky. The boy huffs out a sigh and throws himself onto the single bed, taking a long and slow glance around the bedroom that was his for the summer. Lionel huffs from his space at the end of the bed and Mark thinks that he's going to miss the golden retriever a whole lot.

"Hey", Mark looks up and sees his cousin in his doorframe where he stands for about 2 seconds each morning to tell Mark to get the eggs or brush horsehair, "I won't be going to drop you off tomorrow".

Mark nods in response but his cousin continues to stand there and then lets out a loud sigh. "Thanks for helping out this summer", there's a smile on his face and Mark can feel a grin pulling at the corner of his mouth.

"No problem".

His cousin turns to leave the room, but this time he leaves with a slow shuffle and Mark feels like he maybe figured out how to cross the bridge between the two of them without even realising. He collapses back onto the bed and lets the fan move his hair across his forehead, his fingers softly pulling their way through Lionel's fur. His phone buzzes beside him.

**TEXT RECEIVED**

From: Tae :)

_ See you soon!_


	2. It

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By 'out soon', I definitely meant a month, hahah. Oh well. The action officially starts next chapter.

The loud blaring of his phone alarm is what wakes Mark up at 7:00 am. The sun peaks through his bedroom window blinds, and he finds his eyes squinting immediately once they’re open. After the initial shock, the repetitive trill of the alarm is kind of relaxing, so he lays there, and he lets it go for a little while longer.  
And then, when it starts to grate on his nerves, he sits up, reaches over to the windowsill where his phone is resting and turns it off. He can see the dark tan his skin has taken on from working in his Aunt’s fields, and his scalp stings with the sunburn that he got from forgetting to wear a hat on the long, long drive back home to civilisation in her open-roof Jeep. The boy stares at himself a little while longer in the full-length mirror parallel from his bed, and then with the greatest sigh, he stands up to get ready for his first day of senior year. 

The carpet is soft under his feet and makes no noise, but as soon as he steps into the hardwood hallway, his feet start to make a slapping noise with each step- legs moving with the least amount of effort possible. 

Mark’s parents had bought this house when he was much younger, too young to really remember, but now each wall, each room, had memories of his life attached to them. What an uncanny thought, he thinks to himself as he drags a hand across the picture frames decorating the hallway wall. There’s one of him and Taeyong on Mark’s eighth birthday; both with big grins on their faces and chocolate cake smeared on their teeth and cheeks. There’s another that was taken the night of a school dance in the 5th grade, he and Taeyong in button-up shirts pulling gang-signs like edge-lords. That year was a bad year for haircuts for both of them. Real bad. There’s even a photo of Taeyong’s first high-school ID photo, proudly framed amongst everything else. Taeyong’s everywhere in this house, more so the favourite child of Mark’s parents than Mark himself. With a shake of his head and a small laugh, Mark enters into the open plan living/dining room and is greeted by his Dad at the table, and Mum at the sink, giving a glass cup a rinse.

“Morning, sunshine”, she says over her shoulder, as Mark’s dad salutes his son, tucking quickly into a breakfast of fried eggs and toast before he has to duck out of the house and drive, painstakingly, to work. 

“Morning mum”, said boy answers and heads to the fridge to pull out the milk cartoon, giving his mother a kiss on the cheek as he then passes by her to the kitchen counter where the cereals are. 

“I think going to your Aunt’s was good for you, look at your gorgeous tan skin; isn’t he gorgeous, hon?” Mark’s dad grunts in affirmation and Mark rolls his eyes with a small laugh.

“Yeah, well, it was my only option. Since some people didn’t want me around”.

“Haha”, his mother deadpans and smacks him lightly on the butt, to which Mark sidesteps away from her with a disgusted look on his face.  
Placing his cereal in a bowl, milking it and then spooning it, Mark then moves to the kitchen table, a spoonful of crunchy goodness already filling his mouth. His mother joins, her freshly rinsed glass now filled with orange juice, which she hands to Mark and then proceeds to sit to the left of her husband. 

“So you excited to start your final year? Catch up with Tae and the boys?” Mark’s dad asks, sipping his coffee, maybe from genuine curiosity, maybe just to fill the silence- Mark could never really tell. 

“Uh, yeah”, Mark asks, pain filling in his throat from how suddenly and awkwardly he swallowed his mouthful, thinking about the pictures and message updates from Lucas, how distant Taeyong had seemed to become. When his mother looks slightly confused from his lacklustre response, he pastes on a bright smile, which he hopes doesn’t look too fake, and reiterates, “Definitely”. 

Today was D-Day, which was a strange way to think about the day he’d be seeing his best friend again, but it was. Today was the day that he’d confront his best friend about his strange behaviour and demand answers, or, expertly skirt around the subject until said best friend lays it all clean and Mark just nods his head in affirmation, an understanding look on his face. He sure hoped the latter was how it really went- he wasn’t great with confrontation.

The rest of the morning went by quickly, and Mark locked the front door behind him at exactly 8:15, school uniform on, hair styled as well as he could and contacts in. His Kia beeps and flashes as he unlocks it, the door closing smoothly behind him once he’s inside. Taeyong may hate it, but the fact that it still had that new-car smell a year later left Mark feeling pretty proud. The engine may not growl with power, but boy did the interior smell good. 

The drive to the high-school is quick, and straight through the residential area, Mark pulling in to the student carpark at 8:21 (no, he wasn’t obsessed with keeping the time) and parking effortlessly on the first go. He quickly scans the carpark to find that Taeyong’s Impreza isn’t present, but Lucas and his bright red Holden Colorado are, said boy grinning and waving when the two make eye contact. His tie is loose and a few buttons of his shirt are left open, keying Mark into the knowledge that he’d waken up late and sped out of his apartment again. Mark shakes his head with a laugh and steps out of his car, black leather bag hanging off one shoulder, locking the car with a click as he walks away. 

“Wassup, man”, Lucas greets, pulling Mark in for a quick, one-arm hug. “Long time no see”. 

“Yeah, for sure. Can see you’re not looking quite ready to be back on the ball”.

Lucas laughs. “Dang, is it that obvious?”

“The uh- slightly dishevelled appearance of your uniform kinda gave it away”.  
“Yeah, bro. It’s way too much for me right now. I’ve been waking up at 11 for like, the last month”. 

Mark chuckles in response, looking down at his phone to check the time. 8:25 am. “Time to go in?” He asks Lucas. It’d take both of them 3 minutes to get to their registration classes that started at 8:30 and finished (really quite stupidly) 10 minutes later, but they were required. 

Lucas checks the time himself and then turns to scan the carpark, turning back to Mark with a frown. “Taeyong’s not here”.

Mark takes a look around the carpark himself and sighs, his eyebrows furrowing slightly. He smiles slightly at his friend. “Yeah, guess he’s not”. 

But he does run into registration class with two minutes to spare, his hair blown back from his forehead and breaths coming out of his mouth quite quickly. “I’m so sorry- I’m so- so late”. 

Their registration teacher waves him off, she’s always had a soft spot for Taeyong, and gestures that he should sit down, which he does, right next to Mark.

“Morning younger Lee”, Taeyong greets with a grin and his hair is definitely bright blue. He basically collapses into the plastic chair, backpack dropping down loudly onto the ugly carpeted floor beneath.

“Yeah, morning”, Mark answers, scooting his chair over a little to make more room. Taeyong smiles gratefully and pulls his chair in under the table and then turns to Mark, still grinning, and cheeks flushed with the adrenaline in his veins from his dash into the room.

“I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever? Honestly, what a summer right?”

Mark doesn’t really know what to say, so he just nods and smiles. He feels strange- he’s never felt so awkward around Taeyong before like he doesn’t know what to do or say, not even the first time they met was it like this for Mark, the shyer of the two. 

He feels his hands twitch in his lap and he lets out a sigh, shaking his head internally. Okay, so they hadn’t talked much recently, so what? Taeyong was basically part of his family, and so what if he’d made some changes during the summer, Mark was dramatically over-reacting being the way he was. So what if Taeyong had never been late before. So what? He was still Taeyong, and Mark could talk to him. Nothing had changed.

He turns to his best friend again and smiles, genuinely this time. And when the siren for first period rings, they walk out of the classroom together, talking and joking as they usually do, Taeyong’s arm wrapped around Mark’s shoulders. 

Everything was perfectly okay.

-

The end of the day proves that in fact, things do seem to be okay. Which is an awesome thing in Mark’s books. He walks out of his Student Leader meeting after school to see Taeyong, Lucas, Yangyang and Yuta waiting for him, a soccer ball perched in Yuta’s arms. He feels a grin spread over his face, and with a split-second decision, he throws his bag to the ground and nicks the ball from the Japanese boy who protests with a ‘hey!’ as he then takes off for the nearest grassy oval. 

The five of them play a can-you-really-call-this-a-game-there’s-no-rules game of soccer for an hour, and when they’re done Mark collapses onto the grass panting, flushed and extremely happy. He was definitely worried over the summer for nothing, he thinks, as he sees Taeyong pull Yangyang in under his arm and mess up the boy’s hair. Everything is the same as its always been, and what a relief. Okay, so Mark didn’t actually know why Taeyong had made certain changes, having been too scared to ask him during break and too focused during class to slip him a note, but it was fine. It seemed to not matter so much, now that everyone was together again- just a small blip on an otherwise blipless radar. 

Yuta returns the soccer ball to the sports teacher with a bright smile and salute, and they walk off as a group to the student’s car park. 

“Mark!” Yangyang calls as said boy approaches his car. Mark turns to look at him, and he wears a sheepish smile on his face. “Could you give me a lift to my Mum’s?”

Mark rolls his eyes but motions Yangyang over and the other boy practically squeals with delight, throwing himself and his bag into Mark’s passenger seat. 

“See y’all tomorrow!” Lucas yells, and everyone shares a wave as they get into their cars. 

Mark’s just about to put his keys into the ignition when a thump to his door scares the crap out of him. It’s Taeyong, who motions for him to roll down the window, so he does. 

“I’ll come over later. Tell Mum to make enough dinner for me”.

“Yeah, yeah”, Mark answers and pushes the window up so suddenly it spooks Taeyong into jumping away, screeching about his face. They share a personal wave, and Taeyong backs away to get into his own car and Mark finally starts the engine. 

Yangyang sighs from his position in the passenger seat. “You guys are so close, it’s so nice, but also kind of awful”.

“Shut up, you gremlin”, Mark says and puts the radio on loud to mute Yangyang’s outraged cries. 

The other boy lives a little further out of the way than Mark’s own house, but he nearly always took sympathy on him because he didn’t have his own car or license yet. Mark shudders at the thought of having to catch the bus as Yangyang did. The stench and the utter treachery of forced human contact- if he could save Yangyang from that fate by driving a little farther home when was needed, then he was definitely going to do it. 

It’s nearing 4 when Mark gets home, his mother already home from work, so he pulls in behind her and gets out with a yawn and a stretch. He greets his mother with a hug, and her face lights up when he tells her that Taeyong’s coming over for dinner. She decides she’s going to make his favourite and immediately gets to preparing it, as Mark makes his way to his bedroom to start homework. First day back and his schedule was already looking like a nightmare. He practically collapses into his roller chair and with a serious amount of effort, unpacks his work onto the table in front of him. He sets his alarm for 6:30, when dinner’s usually ready, and then gets straight into it. He was Student Leader for a reason after all. 

In fact, he gets so absorbed with his work that when his alarm goes off, he yelps and almost jumps out of his chair. God, it was like a trance, and now that he’s not absorbed he can feel how dry his eyes are. Grabbing his glasses, he makes his way to the bathroom, pulling his contacts out and placing them into their saline-filled containers once inside. With his glasses on he looks at least 4 years younger which is pretty sad because he already looks young with his round eyes and usually fluffy hair. 

Mark then makes his way to the kitchen/dining room to see that his mother’s already set the dinner plates out and his Dad’s arrived back home, lounging on the couch with his feet up on the coffee table. Oddly enough, Taeyong hadn’t arrived yet, so Mark sends him a text to remind him that dinner at his house is indeed still happening, and it was happening right now. 

He looks to his mother and shrugs his shoulders when she gazes at him inquisitively, choosing to help her with the finishing touches of setting up utensils and stirring the ingredients in the cooking pot on the stove.

They sit down at the table at 6:50 and say grace before beginning their meal, Mark’s mother’s face looking quite upset as she looks to the empty dinner setting where Taeyong should be. He shoots Taeyong another text when he notices that his last message hasn’t even been read yet. Mark frowns to himself, but continues to eat his dinner, hoping it’s just something little like being caught in traffic or something and that he’d be there soon. 

It’s twenty past eight now, and dinner and dessert have long been and past. Mark’s phoned Taeyong three times and had no answer. His mum is so upset she’s left the dishes for the next morning and poured herself a glass of wine. Mark’s worried though, sitting awkwardly on the couch with his thumbnail in his mouth. He keeps looking down at his phone, hoping to see it begin to buzz or flash with a notification, but it doesn’t. It gets to 8:40 when he decides that he has to do something.

“I’m going to Tae’s house”, he announces as he stands up. He doesn’t wait to see his parents faces, or hear if they respond, he just grabs his keys and darts off into the night.

It’s about a fifteen-minute drive from Mark’s to Taeyong’s and he has the route ingrained in his memory. He pulls into the street parking that faces the Lee’s house, noticing that Taeyong’s car is still in the driveway, illuminated by the outside lights. Just as Mark is about to fully exit his car, he hears the slam of a door and looks across the street to see Taeyong run a hand through his hair as he exits the front of the house, and then stomp down the patio stairs toward his car. 

“Get back in here!” Mark hears a voice scream, and he recognises it as Mr Lee’s. He doesn’t think he hears Taeyong answer, but he does hear a loud clattering and then another slam as Taeyong’s gets in his car with fury and turn it on, the engine’s rumbling then loud enough to drown everything else out. Mark thinks he hears swearing from inside, but he’s too distracted by the lights of Taeyong’s car as he reverses out faster than he’s ever seen and then speeds down the street. 

Mark stands for approximately two-seconds longer, half in and half out his car with his hand resting on the top of the door before he decides to throw himself back in and take off after Taeyong.

He had no idea at that moment the world that he’d be entering into.


End file.
